Soft Power - Joseph Nye
Nye, Joseph S. Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, (2004) 'Context: '''Nye was Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and an Asst Sec Def in Clinton admin '''Thesis: '''Soft Power is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. (x) '''Argument: '''Nye argues that soft power will inevitably supplant hard power as the primary means of influence in the world because new problems have global ramifications requiring global and cooperative engagement. ' Three Types of Power (31) ' · Carr (1939) described international power: military, economic, and power over opinion · How America behaves at home can enhance its image and perceived legitimacy, and that in turn can help advance its foreign policy objectives (56) o Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib belie a double standard and diminish soft power. · Foreign policy produces soft power if it is promoting broadly held values and public goods (61) · Public diplomacy’s three dimensions: (107) o Daily communications—explaining domestic and foreign policy decisions o Strat Communication—developing a set of simple themes and coherent strategy o Lasting relationships w/ key individuals thru scholarships, exchanges, training… · Terrorism wields soft pwr to attract popular support as much as it values defeating enemy will to fight · How you implement foreign policy is as important as what you implement in the internat’l community o Unilateralism may be more efficient in executing hard power but comes at great cost WRT soft power—legitimacy suffers. The inverse is true of multilateralism. (65) o Rooseveltian wisdom—speak softly because you carry a big stick (the implication being that the mere presence of the stick will say what you won’t have to). · The US cannot meet the new terrorist threat identified in the NSS without the cooperation of other countries and their degree of cooperation is also affected by the attractiveness of the US (129) · Russia/Soviet Union—effectively none save their high-brow culture (classic music, ballet). o A closed system, lack of an attractive popular culture, and heavy-handed foreign policies kept the Soviet Union from competing with the US in soft power during the Cold War (75) · EU—it’s the economy stupid (everyone wants in), not to mention efforts (especially by France) to promote and proliferate culture. o Domestic and foreign policy (trade and aid) especially w/ Eastern Europe o Use of multilateralism in foreign policy approach (use of IGOs and INGOs) o European domestic policies appeal to young populations in modern democracies because of their policies on capital punishment, gun control, climate change, etc (79) · Asia—diverse aspects o Japanese attractiveness magnified as a result of their rebuilding effort after WWII o Opaque business practices had to change to encourage trust and minimize risk o Historical mistrust in China & Korea of a strong Japan—compromised soft power o China and India grow soft power in their burgeoning economies but both diminish this power through domestic policies of the Chinese communist party and corruption w/in Indian gov’t · NGOs may lack credibility on the international market of ideas but many possess organizational and communication skills that allow them to mobilize demonstrations that governments cannot ignore (94). · Malevolent networks like Al Qaeda also possess soft power that can grow when hard power is used against them (U.S. actions in Afghanistan increase UBL’s popularity in Muslim countries. '''Implications for Strategy ' * Hard power won the conventional war in Iraq and deposed Hussein. US exercised hard power at the expense of soft power and became less attractive to many in the world. * Can the US use soft power once it has yielded hard power? * One of the most important considerations is what is soft power and how can it be measured? Nye uses public opinion polls to prove the importance of soft power but public opinion very rarely influences state interaction, as evidenced by European public opinion in 2003 and the resultant ‘support’ of OIF by European countries. Strategists should not rely solely on soft power, especially when dealing with a country in which public opinion does not play a part in foreign policy (China, North Korea, most of the Middle East, Africa, etc.) Is Nye mirror imaging the importance of American public opinion onto other states?